Instructor: Professor Thomas P. Beebe, Jr. Office: 175 Brown Lab Office Hours*: by appointment Phone: 831-1888 E-mail: beebe@udel.edu	Secretary: Mrs. Robbie Miller Office: 107 Brown Lab Hours: M-F 8:00-4:30 Phone: 831-1962 E-mail: robbie@udel.edu
Lecture location: Room 205 Brown Lab and 023 Lammot DuPont Lab TR 11:00 AM - 12:15 PM; plus additional times in Surface Analysis Facility

This course will provide an introduction and overview to the principles, methods, and analytical techniques of modern surface science. Students will perform laboratory analyses using state-of-the-art surface analytical instruments housed in the Surface Analysis Facility. The classroom lectures will proceed independently of the laboratory exercises. Grading will be based upon a mixture of exercises, as detailed below.

 

Textbook:

Approximate Grading Plan

 

A.	Written report on a student-selected literature paper		25 %
B.	Homework problem set		25 %
C.	Lab project in the Surface Analysis Facility		30 %
	Pre-proposal	5 %
	Proposal	10 %
	Oral report	15 %
D.	Final exam		20 %
			TOTAL 100 %

Grading Criteria

A. Written report on literature paper. Students will select and review a paper taken from one of the journals Science, Nature or Physical Review Letters, having a publication date of any time during 2002 or 2003. No other journals may be substituted. The paper that you select must be about a subject in surface science, and it should be approved in consultation with the instructor. You will write a short review about the paper selected. The paper shall be no longer than 5 pages, double-spaced, one-inch margins, including figures which should be integrated into the 5-page body of the text. The page count should not include your title page or reference page(s). Figures from the paper that are to be used in your review and discussion of the paper should be neatly copied or scanned and inserted into the body of your 5-page report. Attach a copy of the full literature paper to the back of your report. The quality of your written English will be a factor in your grade, so please seek help if you anticipate difficulties in this regard. You are not allowed to directly copy blocks of text from the literature paper without properly quoting and using citations.

B. Homework set. One homework set will be assigned and graded during the semester. You are encouraged to work together with your fellow students, but each student is expected to contribute equally, and each student must turn in a separate assignment. Please indicate your partner(s), if any, on the cover sheet.

C. Lab project in the Surface Analysis Facility. The University of Delaware now boasts a state-of-the-art surface analysis facility that is arguably one of the best in all of US academia. Students in Chem 820 will be exposed to this facility first hand through a laboratory exercise, designed by the students and performed on the instruments in the facility. Please pay very careful attention to the specific requirements given below. The quality of your written English will be a factor in your grade, so please seek help if you anticipate difficulties in this regard. This project consists of the following 3 components:

C.1. Pre-proposal. The Pre-proposal shall consist of not more than one page, double-spaced, including at least one peer-reviewed literature reference (a web address is not a literature reference!). The Pre-proposal should state, in very concise terms, the exact problem to be addressed with surface analysis, the type of samples to be analyzed (maximum of two samples, see below), and the goals of the project. You may analyze no more than 2 samples, and one should be a control experiment of the other. A control experiment is an experiment in which one removes or otherwise holds constant the variable of interest in the other experiments. You must select a problem for which you are able to supply the samples to be analyzed. I will read and comment upon your Pre-proposal and probably ask that you revise and refine it. This marked-up Pre-proposal should be handed in with your Proposal.

C.2. Proposal. The Proposal shall consist of not more than 3 pages, double-spaced, including at least three peer-reviewed literature references (a web address is not a literature reference!). The Proposal should build upon the Pre-proposal, and it should state the problem to be solved or addressed, the background of the problem, a concise summary of previous work, the methods to be employed in the Surface Analysis Facility, the expected results, and how you will use the results to address or solve your problem. Space limitations will require you to be extremely concise here. You must select a problem for which you are able to supply the samples to be analyzed.

C.3. Oral Report. Each student will be given up to 7 minutes to present up to 5 clearly numbered transparencies. The 7-minute talk will be followed by up to 3 minutes of questions from the audience. The audience will consist of the instructor and the others in the class (attendance required). Oral presentations will be held at times to be determined. All students will be required to present their talk and be present at these sessions. On the date of their oral presentation, presenters should hand the instructor a paper copy of their set of 5 transparencies, along with their marked-up Pre-proposal and marked-up Proposal. These time limits will require that you prepare a well rehearsed, concise and clear presentation of your results from the Surface Analysis Facility. Students going over time will be cut off and may receive a penalty. It is in your best interest to adhere to the time limits by practicing several times before the real presentation!

D. Final exam. There will be a comprehensive open-book, open-notes final exam given during the final exam period. The date and time will be announced.

Teams, samples and analytical techniques. Each problem to be addressed will be worked on by a team of two to three students. The students will group into these teams on their own by discussions and e-mails (the instructor will not be responsible for playing matchmaker). The set of samples (maximum of two samples) chosen by each team will be analyzed by both X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS) and Time-of-Flight Secondary-Ion Mass Spectrometry (TOF-SIMS). These two techniques are highly complementary. There should be excellent coordination of information within the team so that conclusions and data are consistent and shared. Both students should be thoroughly familiar with the results of both techniques, although the students in a given team may choose to divide up the oral presentation as they see fit.

Selection of your project. It is recommended that you select a project related to your interests, your present research, or your anticipated future research group. In thinking about what your project might be, you should talk to as many people as possible, including the instructor, your research advisor if you already have one, and other members of your research group if you have already joined one. It is highly recommended that you make the project's goals as simple and closed-ended as possible. Be realistic about the limited amount of time available and the depth of analysis that will be possible during this half-semester. Each student team will be allotted a maximum of 1 hour of instrument time on XPS 1 hour of instrument time on TOF-SIMS. You will be able to use off-line workstations to analyze, work-up, and plot your data. It is hoped that you will be able to build upon your preliminary results from this course in your later years of research. The off-line workstations will have fewer time restrictions, but time will nevertheless be limited by the fact that the whole class will need to get onto the machines, so please plan ahead.

Use of instruments in the Surface Analysis Facility. Instruments in the Surface Analysis Facility are complex, delicate and expensive. "Users" of this facility must schedule times when their samples can be analyzed while they are present and with the help of analysts working in the facility. Each team will be allotted a maximum of 1 hour of instrument time on each instrument (XPS and TOF-SIMS). Since the facility will be significantly burdened by the additional sample load caused by this exercise, we will try to make special arrangements to handle this added sample load. However, you will have to be reasonable, flexible and patient as we figure this out. Unreasonable and uncooperative students will be banned from use of the facilities, to the detriment of their grade.

Interpretation of data. Students are expected to plot out, analyze and interpret their own data, working as a team with their partner(s). They are not to burden the analysts in the facility or me with the task of analyzing and interpreting their data, although they may consult on a limited basis to get started on the process. It is the responsibility of the student to allot the appropriate amount of time for data interpretation, analysis and plotting. Bear in mind that others in the class will be competing for analysis time on the off-line data stations, and that this time crunch will become more acute as the end of the semeater nears. We will do our best to assist in the scheduling.

"TBA" = to be announced

Lecture Notes

Introduction to Photoelectron Spectroscopy

Introduction to Auger Electron Spectroscopy 1

Introduction to Auger Electron Spectroscopy 2

Laboratory Schedule